KBB NTG Education Zone - The Kitchen Bedroom Bathroom National Training Group (UK)

In partnership with the KBB National Training Group, students from Big Wood School in Nottingham are the first in the country to take the new Creating Interiors course. The group of 12 (11 boys and 1 girl) started the course in September and have been working really hard both at school and at WEBS Training in Beeston who train apprentices and adults nation wide for the furniture industry. Students spend one morning a week in school and the following week go to the workshops in Beeston where they are taught the specialist skills needed for fitting kitchens, making furniture and interior design. The two directors at WEBS Training Peter Sisson and Maureen Adams have been very impressed with the attitude and behaviour of the students saying that they were the "best school group they have ever worked with". And as a result the Creating Interiors course has been mentioned to national employers and interest in the course has spread through Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The course was written by Dave Gilkerson a teacher at Big Wood School and Paul Stringer a member of staff from WEBS Training, and has been accredited nationally by ABC Awards as equal to 2 GCSE's grade A*-C.

The course is made up of units of work including: Health and Safety, Designing Kitchens, Bedrooms and Bathrooms, Preparing an Area for Fitting, Assembling and Fitting Flat Pack Units and Finishing an Interior. The students' first job on the course has been to develop basic tool skills by making a toolbox that they are near to completing, and then they move on to assembling and fitting kitchen units after Easter.

The school have now invested in the latest state of the art kitchen design software sponsored by Planit Fusion. This software is widely used in the KBB market place and will allow the students to produce 3D fly through designs for kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms.

The students will also be entering their designs in a competition to find the best kitchen design and will be judged by KBB industry leaders and an NTG award will then be presented to the winner in January.

Having completed the first of a two year program, three of the students have been shortlisted for the Nottinghamshire young apprentice of the year award. They have had their interview and impressed the judges with their application and interview skills. They make up half of the 6 students that have been shortlisted, but only 3 will go through to the final awards evening where the overall winner will be announced.

This is part of the schools' commitment to equip its students with as many work based skills as possible, to enable them to compete in the labour market. The students will complete the course in 2010.

Students from Big Wood School visit Magnet Store